Men Plan, God Laughs

I am getting on a plane tomorrow, so I had great plans for tonight. Plans change.

For dinner, I was going to drive through Burger King with $10 cash because:

1. I needed a $5 to check my bag with Spirit airlines tomorrow
2. I needed one more quarter to do the last of my laundry tonight

A friend/co-worker grabbed me on the way out the door and decided to go with me. Instead of driving through, we ate inside.

On the way out, a woman in her mid-50s stopped us. We could tell immediately something wasn’t quite right. She said she was lost and asked for directions to her house.

She seemed to be close to tears the whole time we were talking to her. She asked us if we could call her husband, but we tried twice and he didn’t answer. Apparently, she had been following his car with her car and they got separated.

I was familiar with the street that she said she lived on, so I started writing down directions for her. But I could tell that she still seemed confused. If she didn’t have the sweet mom look that she did, I would have sworn that she was on drugs.

When the woman looked away briefly, I asked my friend if she would be ok if we drove this lady home. Seriously, she was that lost. Plus, we were in the not-so-nice part of town. My friend seemed okay with it, so we offered a ride to the lady and she gladly accepted it.

We thought about all getting in my car and taking her, but eventually her and her husband would have to come back and get the car and they would be in the same situation. Plus, like I said, we were in the not so nice part of town. Actually, while we were helping her, a homeless man kept asking us for money.

The lady did not want to even drive her own car. I took the lead in my car and my friend hopped behind the wheel of the lady’s car and we headed to her house.

After delivering her home safely, we found out a few more details. Her daughter has recently gone through a pretty painful divorce that has been very hard on the family. The stress on this woman has caused her to lose her memory. It’s like that psycho-somatic thing where people can convince themselves that their arm is paralyzed so much that their arm actually becomes paralyzed. She has lived in Florida for 14 years and she COULD NOT FIND HER WAY HOME!

Her husband offered to pay us gas money or whatever for our troubles but we, of course, refused. It sounds corny, but I would want someone to do the same for someone in my family if they were in the same situation. Plus, my friend (and coincidentally this couple), were from Minnesota. That’s what we like to call Minnesota Nice!

I ended up getting home a bit later than I had planned but I felt pretty good about knowing that this woman was safe.

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Like I said, I am going to be out of town for the next few days. Instead of leaving my fine readers without your daily entertainment, I have lined a little something up for the rest of the week.

Unlike most Type 1 diabetics (but certainly not all), I was not diagnosed in childhood, but instead during my last two years of college. It is actually a pretty crazy story with even a couple unexpected twists and turns. It will take me a couple days to tell it, but hopefully you’ll find it at least somewhat interesting. There are even pictures! 😉

Enjoy your time with your family this Thanksgiving week – I know I will!